3 key lessons we learned from Futures Sudan
Sudan is at a key juncture in history and is witnessing a transition to democracy after the 30-year regime of president Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019 by a coup. Decades of conflict and an autocratic regime have contributed to some 9.3 million people — 23% of the population — expected to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. And then, together with the greatest flooding in decades, plus inflation hitting record peaks, COVID-19 hit, compounding these issues.
It’s against this backdrop that we embarked on a journey with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Sudan to ask: how can we harness the potential for tech to tackle these gnarly development challenges, while remaining cognisant that Sudan is a complex, low connectivity context?
The learning journey that we co-designed around this question focused on, first, recognising the key characteristics of the context (such as a significant urban / rural divide, gender inequity, and low technology penetration), and thinking about the transformative ways in which tech could be used. We also came face to face with some of those challenges as we undertook the sessions in a totally virtual format (you can learn more about that in our previous blog post).
Through Futures, we aim to increase the FCDO Sudan staff’s confidence and capability to test frontier technologies in their work to achieve development outcomes faster and more effectively and improve their connections with the local tech ecosystem to catalyse experimentation with tech.
Lesson 1: Despite low connectivity in Sudan, COVID-19 has sped up how programmes use technology to reach communities.
When it comes to COVID, ‘we are in the same storm but not on the same boat’. Even though some claim that this pandemic is an equaliser, our ability to cope with it depends on where we live and our socioeconomic status. In a country like Sudan, where one in four people falls under the extreme poverty line, the pandemic has aggravated existing political and humanitarian issues. However, COVID is also acting as a catalyst for change.
In partnership with the GSMA, we surfaced some of the trends in technology in Sudan, and ways in which it is used to have a transformative impact. When we compared Sudan to some of its neighbouring countries or countries close by, you see while progress has been made over the years, Sudan has some catching up to do. Compared to Sudan’s 48%, 70% of Egyptians and 52% in Kenyans have access to mobile services.
What we saw was that this trend has been used as a launchpad throughout this pandemic. Save the Children has partnered with mobile operator Zain to send COVID-19 SMS awareness messages which have already reached over 3.5 million people.
The Sudan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is implementing an initiative to support the over 200,000 university students that experienced disruption to their studies as a result of universities closures. To ensure they can pursue their courses online, the Ministry has identified six universities that will provide educational content. Meanwhile, as many can’t afford to buy data, mobile networks operators such as Zain and MTN will provide free access to the online learning platforms.
Lesson 2: We can leverage technology as a doorway to increase participation, but we have to be wary of not widening inequalities in access.
Our analysis of the trends tells us that mobile penetration is growing, but we also know from conversations with the FCDO, project partners and technologists, that this trend is not always equal across the country and population. As United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) head Achim Steiner puts it, ‘the speed and ubiquity of technological change offers unparalleled opportunities for sustainable development, but it also comes with the risk of rising inequalities within and between countries. It is up to policy makers to leverage this transformation for good, and to mitigate their risks.’
The Futures Sudan engagement highlighted differences in digital access between rural populations and women on the one hand and urban populations and men on the other. The conversations raised the imperative to be mindful about how we harness technology to ensure we maintain inclusivity as a guiding principle and don’t exacerbate the digital divide.
In some cases, introducing digital forms of communication can even spark divide and conflict, both on a national level and locally within communities, which can be particularly harmful during a political transition. While we have always had to deal with rumour and propaganda, the speed and scale at which digital information now travels, especially through social media, means that the consequences of misinformation and disinformation are now amplified.
Antidotes exist, though. This pilot in South Sudan is experimenting with how mobile phone-based information services can engage communities in building peace by managing misinformation. Jonathan Tanner at the ODI has developed some key tools to help development practitioners who are engaging with communities using smartphones or online platforms. These include the recently published guide 10 Things to Know about Misinformation and Disinformation as well as his Government vs the Robots podcast, where he champions solutions tackling the influence of technology on politics.
Lesson 3: Understanding what will be transformative within a context is the secret to harness technology for good, not shiny new toys or speedy innovation.
The low connectivity and the complexity of the context came up again and again as challenges for why technology wouldn’t necessarily work in Sudan. And yet, again and again, we were faced with incredible optimism from FCDO staff in the potential of tech as well as their ingenuity, which is shaping the way they work with programme’s implementers on the ground.
While not necessarily calling it that, staff embodied the mindset of turning adversities into opportunities, applying simple technologies to ‘frontier’ uses, and developing a breeding ground for innovation in a complex and resource-poor environment. Without knowing it, they practiced the key tenets of what Navi Radjou calls ‘frugal innovation’ in his book ‘Frugal Innovation: How to Do More with Less’ (You can also watch this TED Talk to learn more).
The team demonstrated that ‘shiny new toys’ are not always the best solution to the greatest challenges in development when they supported a free training course tailored specifically for Sudanese journalists that the Ministry of Information and Culture has launched to help them navigate the challenges of reporting COVID-19 accurately and ethically.
The course, which is delivered by the Thomson Foundation and the British Council, is available in Arabic and can be taken via WhatsApp. It only requires access to access to WiFi or a mobile network at the beginning and end to remove the barrier of poor connectivity in some parts of the country. So far, the course has reached 2,000 journalists who are now equipped to raise awareness, counter misinformation and disinformation and provide the public with reliable and objective information.
Conclusion
The Sudan engagement is over for now, but we’re not quite ready to walk away. It has been an insight to explore innovation and frontier technology in this context, and we are left wondering: what other development challenges in Sudan could we dig into?
